The Osborn Brothers - Stonecutters

As a follow-up to my 'Signed by Carvers' post in February, I wanted to share some photographs that were sent to me by Robert Lenahan, a gravestone enthusiast, like me. In fact, this may turn into a series of posts over the next few months. The following pictures show the work of two brothers, Henry and Jonathan Hand Osborn, who were stonecutters in Woodbridge and Scotch Plains, NJ. Their carvings include monograms, floral motifs, winged cherubs, and often signatures.   

 

Gravestone of Phebe Fleming, Rahway Cemetery, Rahway, NJ, cut by Henry Osborn (1770-1839). Note the signature at the bottom in between two flowers. 

PF

In Memory of Phebe

Daugh’r of Daniel ~

Moore & wife of John

Fleming who deceas’d

March 10 1790 Aged

20 Years & 9 Mon’s.

                                                            Cut by Henry Osborn Woodbridge

 

 

Gravestone of Naomi Carll, Rahway Cemetery, Rahway, NJ, cut by Henry Osborn:

Sacred to the memory of

Mrs. Naomi Carll

wife of the Rev’d Buckley

Carll who deceas’d Aug’t

28^th 1804 in the 35^th year

Of her age ~

Her heaven born examples, as a loving wife, a

faithful and endearing friend, and an eminent

christian, all combined to render her an honour to

her sex, a blessing to her partner, and in

her death much lamented by him and the

people in his charge.

                                               

                                                Cut by Henry Osborn 

 

Gravestone of David Stewart Elmer, Presbyterian Church, Westfield, NJ, cut by Jonathan Hand Osborn (1760-1846) of Scotch Plains:

[David Stewart]

Son of Doct’r

Philemon & Catherine

Elmer

Was born May 27th

1804

Died

Sept 28^th

1826

AEtatis 22

                                                         Osborn S. Plains 

I found this article in the New Jersey Journal, Elizabethtown, NJ, Oct  16, 1793:

Five D ~~~~~~

Stolen on M~~~~~~~~Sep-

tember, a dark brown HORSE, four years old

last grals [?], 14 1/2 hands high, trots and canters well,

has neither brand nor mark, only a thin small tail.

Whoever will secure the thief in any jail so that 

he may be brought to justice, shall receive the above

reward; and if the horse is recovered, and notice

thereof given to the owner, so that he may be had 

again, shall be paid a generous reward, exclusive of 

all reasonable expences.

JONATHAN HAND OSBORN,

N.B.  It is supposed there was taken with the

above described horse, a saddle part worn, without

a cropper, and a bridle with plated buckles.

Scotch Plains, October 8, 1793. 

 And this notice of his death from the Centinel of Freedom, Newark, NJ, March 24, 1846:

 Another Revolutionary Soldier Gone--At Scotch Plains,

on the 12th instant, JONATHAN HAND OSBORN, in the

87th year of his age.

Here is the link to a photo of his gravestone.

This last gravestone is that of Mary Hetfield, also at the Presbyterian Church, Westfield, NJ, cut by H O. It is unclear whether the initials H O refer to Henry Osborn or his brother, Jonathan Hand Osborn, who also signed his work Hand Osborn or even H. Osborn.

 In Memory of

Mary Wife of

Matthias Hetfield

She died May the

12^th 1791 In the

59^th Year of her

Age

Spectators here you see

My body wrapt in clods [?]

Soon we shall equal bee

Entomb’d beneath this sod

                                                                        

                                                    cut by H O

Note the gravestone of Sarah Dixon with these initials on my February post. This signature H + O is similar yet different than the one above it. Could it be one of the Osborn brothers?

More to come . . .

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Copyright 2013, Barbara Schaffer
Photographs by Robert Lenahan

Strubbe Plot and A Mystery Man

In February of last year I went to the Hoboken Cemetery in North Bergen, NJ, to meet my third cousin for the first time. Ruth's gr-grandmother, Eleonora Strubbe Menke, and my gr-grandfather, William Strubbe, were siblings. For years she had a photograph hanging in her house of my William and she wanted to pass it along to me. The Strubbe and Menke plots were fairly close and easy to find.

There are 13 people buried in the Strubbe plot. All are family members except for one person I called the mystery man. My Aunt Midge had always told me a story about Grandpa Strubbe burying someone who had jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge but I could never find anything about him until last August. . .

 

This is the photograph that Ruth gave me. I just love it! William evidently gave it to his sister as a present in 1895. On the back he wrote, "Striped bass, weight 7-3/4 lbs, caught off Liberty Island, May 13, 1894." Imagine fishing near the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor? 

William purchased the plot at Hoboken Cemetery for $90.00 on September 17, 1884 the day his one-month old son, Freddie, died in NYC. 

The deed states the plot is on Magnolia Avenue between Magnolia and the Flower Hill Path containing "180 superficial feet."

This is an early photograph taken when the Hoboken Cemetery was in its prime.

Sometime in the 1970s Aunt Midge and I took some not-so-great photos. The gate with the inscription "W. & A. Strubbe 1886" was still there as was the red dot on the gravestone indicating perpetual care.    

And this is a photograph of the plot in 2004 that I found on the internet. The gate was missing.

So here's the story about our mystery man. Note the name Chr. Reiman  on the gravestone. After multiple searches on Ancestry and in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle and NY Times newspapers, I finally came across an article that I found on the Old Fulton NY site which tells it all: 

NY Herald, 5 May 1900:
Foreseeing Death, Gave Away His Money. Friend of Man Killed by Fall from Brooklyn Bridge Gets His Bank Account.
William Strubbe has, by the report of Rollin M. Morgan, referee, become entitled to the estate of his friend, Christian Rieman, who was killed on November 19, 1898 by falling from the Brooklyn Bridge. The aggregate value of the estate is $3,388.
Rieman was a seafaring man for years. He left Germany when a boy of twelve and came to this country to make a fortune, but he spent the greater part of his life on the sea. For more than ten years he was a rigger employed on the Brooklyn Bridge. So far as is known he had no relatives, and boarded with Strubbe and his family at No. 26 Rose street.
Having had several narrow escapes from death, and realizing that his work was of a dangerous character he had a premonition that he would die as the result of an accident on the Bridge. He told Strubbe of this, and in the summer of 1891 gave Strubbe two bank books, saying to him:--"Here, Bill, you are the only friend I've got: these bank books are yours: in case of an accident, bury me decently. Buy a plot and tombstone and put a railing around it, and what is left is yours."
When his friend died, Strubbe took proceedings in the Supreme Court to recover the money Rieman had had in the bank. The referee in his report finds that Rieman made a gift of the bank books to Strubbe, and that he is entitled to judgment for the amount on deposit.  

I immediately sent the article to my cousin, Ruth, and told her it kind of gave me the "willies."  But I was very happy to have finally found out what happened to our mystery man.

Ruth took this photo of the Strubbe plot in the foreground and her Menke plot with the tall monument in the center of the pic. We know William and Eleonora planned it this way and that they would be together forever :)


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Copyright 2013, Barbara Schaffer